A few weeks ago in this space I talked about my personal perceptions of the interaction of the college with the community and the community with the college. I referred to this interaction as the “strategic commitments.”
The first strategic commitment was the transformation of the college from a junior college to one offering bachelor degrees. From the perspective of the School of Business and Public Management I talked about our six bachelor degree programs that have been created since 2008. Two items have driven our work. What are the needs of the community and how can we differentiate ourselves from others? From this working framework you can understand our commitment to criminal justice and to hospitality and tourism.
The subject for today is ‘“strategic commitment 2” — the role of the college in transforming the community. I’ll give you a heads-up, this is going to take more than one column.
The first way of community transformation is the dual enrollment program. As many of you know, after meeting admissions criteria, high school students may enroll in college classes and earn credits toward high school requirements and have credits toward a college degree. This is free with books included — not a bad deal.
Free college credits and the lowering of overall costs of a college degree is the obvious benefit of the program. The more important benefit, in my opinion, is that high school students must come to campus and take classes with the wide variety of others at the college. This acclimation only occurs while on campus. Given that 75 percent of our students are first generation, this acclimation is essential and prepares students for the very different learning environment they will face as they pursue their degree. This increases the likelihood of their future success that will contribute to a higher standard of living.
The next way of transformation is seen in our use of internships. All of our bachelor’s degrees (as well as culinary arts) require students to complete an internship during their senior year. This is the best time to synthesize real world experience with the theory of the classroom.
We invest considerable resources in our internship requirement as we see them as much a part of our program as a class. Also, intern hosts are treated like faculty. At SBPM internships are not just something nice to put on a resume. They are requirement of graduation. Few schools in USG do this.
There are two general types of internships. The first lets a student survey all the operations of a business. Here they get to see things from an overall perspective. In a second type of internship, students focus on a unique problem or challenge faced by a local business.
Here our students under the watchful eyes of the host apply theory to solve real problems. This type is the most numerous of all the internships across the disciplines we touch — business, criminal justice, public management, health informatics, hospitality and tourism, and graduates of technical schools seeking to learn management. All must complete an internship — all.
Another measure of community transformation is seen in graduation. In May 2011, eight students walked across the stage to get a Bachelor of Business Administration. This past May (including a small commencement in December) saw 100 degrees award in SBPM programs — 100! These students had just been problem-solvers in internships. Now they become employees ready to join the labor force. While the base is small, this represents a compound annual rate of growth of 32.4 percent.
Even more amazing are the details. Median starting salary of our 2017 graduates is $35,620. Also, 91 percent of these graduates found employment in Georgia while 83 percent found employment in coastal Georgia. Finally 71 percent of the 2017 graduates found employment in their area of study.
Again, our goal is to have programs that support the needs of our economy. The economist in me loves the final observation — what I call the market test. Employers come back for more!
The next area of impact is in our commitment to developing a local entrepreneurial eco-system. Here there is a lot to say — all for another day.
For now, I you think we are making great strides in significantly answering the promise found in the second strategic commitment. While we at One College Drive are very different from what we were not that long ago, those of you looking to us to make our community a better place are different as well.
Reg Murphy Center